News

We are looking for contributors for the 2-volume, illustrated ORGANIZED CRIME: A INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA, VOL.I and II, to be published by ABC-CLIO in 2007.

The volume consists of sixteen chapters, broken down into three sections. Section 1 is devoted largely to historical antecedents, causation theories and group dynamics and provides a global overview (by region) of the organized crime problem.
Section 2 covers the global organized crime problem by addressing specific activities, enterprises and sources of financing. Section 2 also addresses some key issues such as Hi-tech and Cyber-crimes.
Section 3 addresses the global impact of organized crime, the criminal-terrorist nexus and international efforts to combat organized crime and corruption. Section 3 also contains several articles, which address the future of global organized crime and it’s control and concludes by providing an agenda for future research.

Articles run between 3 and 10 manuscript pages in length, depending on the subject. Small honoraria will be paid and/or copies of the full encyclopedia set will also be offered. The submission deadline for the remaining available entries is January 1, 2006. The author may contribute more than one entry provided the above due date is met.

Asian Journal of Criminology.
An Interdisciplinary Journal on Crime, Law and Deviance in Asia.

Editor-in-Chief: R. Broadhurst New journal, to be published in 2006.

The Editors now welcome submissions for the Journal’s first Volume

The Asian Journal of Criminology aims to advance the study of criminology and criminal justice in Asia, to promote evidence-based public policy in crime prevention, and to promote comparative studies about crime and criminal justice. The Journal provides a platform for criminologists, policymakers, and practitioners and welcomes manuscripts relating to crime, crime prevention, criminal law, medico-legal topics and the administration of criminal justice in Asian countries.

The Journal especially encourages theoretical and methodological papers with an emphasis on evidence-based, empirical research addressing crime in Asian contexts. It seeks to publish research arising from a broad variety of methodological traditions, including quantitative, qualitative, historical, and comparative methods. The Journal fosters a multi-disciplinary focus and welcomes manuscripts from a variety of disciplines, including criminology, criminal justice, law, sociology, political science, psychology, forensic science, social work, urban studies, history, geography, and anthropology.

(To obtain an electronic copy of the complete report (PDF), please send a request by e-mail to the Research and Evaluation Section (Community, Contract and Aboriginal Policing Services) of the RCMP research_evaluation@rcmp-grc.gc.ca)

From the Executive summary:

With significant improvements in modes of transport, communication and ever-expanding horizon of technology, organized crime has significantly evolved into a global phenomenon. It also appears that the factors contributing to globalization and the very fact of globalization of organized crime groups has resulted in a range of complex structures of these groups – necessitating the formation of market-driven transnational networks. Researchers have concluded that the criminal organizations of the 21st century are characterized by a large degree of fluidity and structural complexity. As opposed to the popular stereotypes, they utilize diverse forms and sizes of clusters, network structures and groups, often but not invariably transnational with occasional local home-bases, as suited for their diverse forms of illegal activities, and as dictated by emerging opportunities across the globe.

Crime, Media, Culture is the primary vehicle for exchange between scholars who are working at the intersections of criminological and cultural inquiry. It promotes a broad crossdisciplinary understanding of the relationship between crime, criminal justice, media and culture.

While Crime, Media, Culture embraces submissions across a range of research perspectives and methodological orientations, it encourages especially work that develops cultural, critical, and qualitative understandings of the crime/media/culture nexus. On this basis, while Crime, Media, Culture does not reject quantitative studies out of hand, it does require that statistical analysis be substantiated by, and situated within, theoretically informed and qualitatively nuanced engagement with the subject matter.

Submissions are sought primarily from academics and scholarly researchers in relevant fields but submissions from professionals, practitioners, policy makers, cultural workers, and other interested parties are also welcome, and will be given full consideration.

Drawing on detailed enthnographies, the contributors address illegal forms of corruption and more widely, moral and legal forms of corruption in western and non-western societies. Based on descriptive analyses of corrupt practices at and beyoud the local level, it stands as a demonstration that empirical investigation can be carried out. The work draws on long-term research based on a combination of traditional anthropological methods, background knowledge and the study of documentary sources. [read more]

At the beginning of the 21st century organised crime has become a ‘hot’ topic in public debate and on political agendas throughout Europe. To control organised crime, far-reaching legal and institutional reforms have been passed in all European states and ad hoc instruments have been adopted by all major international organisations. Despite its great media success and the flurry of national and international initiatives on the subject, comparative research has so far been limited.

This volume represents the first attempt to systematically compare organised crime concepts, as well as historical and contemporary patterns and control policies in thirteen European countries. These include seven ‘old’ EU Member States (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom), two ‘new’ members (the Czech Republic and Poland), a candidate country (Turkey), and three non-EU countries (Albania, Russia and Switzerland). Based on a standardised research protocol, thirty-three experts from different legal and social disciplines provide insight through detailed country reports. On this basis, the editors compare organised crime patterns and policies in Europe and assess EU initiatives against organised crime.

Its informed analyses and unprejudiced assessments will make Organised Crime in Europe an indispensable resource for scholars, students, practitioners, and policy-makers interested in understanding the complex phenomenon of organised crime and its related control policies in Europe.

Nowhere in the world has organized crime infiltrated labor as effectively as in the United States. From the early 1930s to the assassination of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa in 1975, the federal government neglected this illicit marriage. Since 1975,the FBI, Department ofJustice,and other federal agencies have pursued a relentless battle against labor racketeering in mobbed-up unions all over the country.This struggle continues today.

Mobsters, Unions, and Feds is the first book to tell the full story of the relationship between organized crime and organized labor,as well as recent federal efforts to clean up unions. One of America’s leading experts on the mafia, James B. Jacobs explains how the Cosa Nostra families first gained a foothold in labor during violent struggles between workers and employers in the early twentieth century, then after Prohibition’s repeal,made labor racketeering its top priority. Jacobs also outlines the failure of law enforcement to address the problem, especially the inaction of the FBI under J.Edgar Hoover.

Since Hoover’s death and Hoffa’s murder, the U.S.Department of Justice has aggressively prosecuted many of the mafia’s activities using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute. Jacobs places the federal efforts to liberate the unions in the context of this larger war, which has sent hundreds of organized crime members and bosses to prison. Though there have been some impressive victories, there have been many frustrating defeats in a struggle that continues to this day.

This second report by the Regional Clearing Point (International Organization for Migartion) published in 2005 presents a comprehensive picture of the trafficking phenomenon in South Eastern Europe. You can download this document from here.

On October 25th Europol released the public version of its 2005 EU Organised Crime Report. It is not yet available on their website however we obtained a copy. You’ll find it (.pdf) here. (right click the link for direct download)

Corruption and Tax Compliance. Policy and Administration Challenges
National and international corruption indices suggest that the Bulgarian tax administration has an important role to play in fighting corruption. While the general public and the business community are inclined to think better of the tax administration, in terms of the levels and spread of corruption, by comparison with other institutions, such as customs, the police or the judiciary, corruption in the tax administration is still admittedly rather high.

The Courts, Prosecution and Investigation in the EU Member States and Accession Countries (in Bulgarian only)
The book reviews the organization and principles of activity of the courts, prosecution and investigation in the EU member states, including the new ones, and the accession countries.

Anticorruption Reforms in Bulgaria
The report makes an overview of the conducted anticorruption reforms in Bulgaria since 1997 and analyses the spheres of penetration, as well as the levels and dynamics of corruption in the Bulgarian society and presents the major achievements and problems of anticorruption reforms.

Crime Trends in Bulgaria: Police Statistics and Victimization Surveys
The report uses a crime victimization survey as an alternative analytical tool to make an independent assessment of the crime situation in Bulgaria for the period 2001–2004.

You can download these and many other reports from the CSD website:www.csd.bg